Wow. This is out-of-the-blue news. These days 69 seems to be a bit on the young side to be passing away.

R.I.P. Harold. I really got into Ghostbusters in 1984, it was very much a part of my early teenage years. I enjoyed Groundhog Day too. I seem to remember having a similar idea for a screenplay about a day relived over and over at about the same time, though mine was a very serious and earnest take on it. I think the gentler comedy approach of his film was the better idea.

The role I still most identify Ramis with is as Russell Ziskey in Stripes. The scene where he tackles Murray and tells him he (Murray) isn't going AWOL because it was Murray's fault that he (Ramis) was there in the first place is a moment I will always love.

Just a few weeks ago my fiancee and I went to enjoy Groundhog Day back on the big screen at our local AMC (on Groundhog Day, actually). And between both following online discussion over the last few weeks of a forthcoming LEGO set of the ECTO-1 and being at Pensacon two days ago listening to Ernie Hudson's entertaining recollections, I've been enjoying a lot of discussion of Ghostbusters lately. And on top of that, before I read anything about this unfortunate news, I was just thinking about Stripes today while at work (in the context of recalling some favorite score cues for military comedies like this one from Elmer Bernstein and Johnny Williams' 1941). I've had a lot of Harold Ramis on the brain these last few weeks, it seems.

It's almost like a piece of my childhood just died. Ghostbusters was such a big part of my life as a kid and one of the earliest movies I have the clearest memories of seeing in a theater. Egon was my always my favorite character, and whenever my friends and I would pretend to be Ghostbusters, I had to be him and run around with my makeshift PKE meter. He wrote and/or directed some great comedy classics, too, like National Lampoon's Animal House, Caddyshack, Stripes and National Lampoon's Vacation, and he had a really funny cameo in 2002's Orange County. But, for me, he'll forever be remembered as Dr. Egon Spengler.

Ghostbusters had an immeasurable impact on my filmgoing childhood; along with Back to the Future, it was my favorite comedy growing up as a kid and I watched it countless times.

Groundhog Day was equally brilliant, hilarious, and worth seeing one million times (at least). Not just comedy, not hard, cynical comedy...but both Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day managed to pull off that rarest of feats (IMO): feel-good hilarity. Both films are tremendously warm and infinitely pleasant, yet endlessly funny.

Mr. Ramis also managed to pull this feel-good comedic touch in my other favorite role of his: Dr. Bettes, from As Good As It Gets. His warm and fuzzy, generous doctor to Helen Hunt's son was a small role but Ramis shone. Same goes for his role as Seth Rogen's dad in Knocked Up.